EnergyQuest: higher oil prices, exports bump Australian LNG revenue

Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports hit 56.8 million tons in 2017, jumping 26.3 percent from 44.9 million tons the year before.

Combined with the higher oil prices, the increase in volumes has bumped the 2017 LNG export revenue by 44.1 percent to A$25.8 billion ($20.3 billion), according to a monthly report by the energy consultancy, EnergyQuest.

During December, Australian liquefied natural gas export projects shipped a total of 79 cargoes totaling 5.3 million tons, 0.1 million tons above the previous month’s volumes.

EnergyQuest noted that the North Asian LNG spot prices continued to climb with the Sling North Asia index reaching $11.24 per mmBtu (A$14.26) from February deliveries, as of January 8. The prices were driven to highest levels since November 2014 due to colder temperatures and the growing Chinese demand.

Projects on the Australian west coast shipped 3.3 million tons of LNG in December, slightly below the 3.5 million tons of LNG shipped in November.

Chevron-led Wheatstone LNG project did not export any cargoes during the month, however, one cargo has already been shipped in January 2018.

The east coast projects exported 2 million tons of LNG, a record volume, jumping from 1.7 million tons in the previous month.

Data from the Gladstone Ports Corporation shows that the three export plants on Curtis Island near Gladstone shipped a total of 30 cargoes in December 2017. The largest portion of the volumes, 1.35 million tons landed in China, followed by Japan with 335,067 tons of LNG imported. South Korea and Malaysia received 180,254 and 129,866 tons of the chilled fuel, respectively.

EnergyQuest’s report shows that, on an annualized basis, the east coast plants operated at 24 mtpa in December or 93 percent of the nameplate capacity, well above the 2018 rate assumed by the ACCC which was at 20.7 mtpa.

The increase in exports from the east coast does not seem to have impacted the domestic gas market in a negative way, according to the report.